falling petals | warrior cats story

twenty three.

twenty three.
lilystem.

Technically, I didn't sleep on it. After all I had just woken up for the day, so I decided to take a walk. To get something like this off of my mind, I would typically take Acornpaw out hunting. But unfortunately, Dustedpath had taken her away from me. The audacity Barkwillow and Antstar must have to change mentors on the young apprentice.

I pawed the ground slowly, kneading the grass. I hated thinking, because then I would overthink. And overthinking clouds my mind, and makes me feel unorganized. Ugh, I'm doing it again.

I decided to take a bite to eat. While chewing on a rabbit, I thought about Scorchfur. Would he tell anyone about Petalheart? And what about Antstar? He kinda just... left. My head swiveled in the direction of his den. Maybe I should talk to him.

A paw on my shoulder disrupted my thoughts. I turned to face them. It was Cherrystorm.

"Hey Lilystem," she purred softly, taking a seat next to me, "You doing okay?" The calico asked, actually sounding quite sympathetic. She doesn't know that I know that she knows... wait did I say that right?

My head bobbled, only nodding. "Doing better than I was before. Thank you."

"That's good," she smiled lightly, her expressions appearing faint.

"Are you okay?" I reversed the question onto her.

Cherrystorm looked to me, sighing. "Could be better. I just-" Her gaze ran away from me as she choked up. "I just miss her. I thought that I would be okay if something like this happened. But, I was...wrong." She sniffled. "I-I don't know maybe I'm just emotional right now." Her words rushed out rapidly.

I couldn't help but feel bad for her. My ears fell flat, "You have a right to be sad. Don't feel like you have to justify that." My paw rested on her shoulder, causing her to look back at me. "Mistakes like this happen, but they happen for a reason. I bet Petalheart is looking down at us right now and thinking about how strong we are for her." The words flowed out of my mouth easily, as I felt tears prick at my eyes. W-What?

I lifted my paw off of her shoulder to paw my eyes, not allowing any tears to fall as I attempted to blink them away.

She pawed her eyes as well, "You're right, Lilystem. Thank you for this." Cherrystorm muttered warmly. I didn't say anything after that.